Margaret Leonie EdmondAM (née Suchestow; born 11 June 1946)[1] is an Australian architect.[2][3]
Education and formative years
As a child, Edmond's family lived in houses designed by notable Australian architects—the Bridgeford House in Black Rock, designed by Robin Boyd in 1953; and the Quamby apartments in South Yarra, designed by Roy Grounds. She has reflected on this upbringing, noting that "from a very early age I was aware that houses I had lived in differed from those of my friends".[4]
Edmond studied architecture at University of Melbourne alongside her first husband, landscape architect Robin Edmond (1943—2008).[5] She completed her Bachelor of Architecture in 1969.[6]
Career
In 1974, she formed a partnership with her husband Peter Corrigan to create the Melbourne-based architectural firm Edmond and Corrigan. She remains a principal of the firm, and manages and presents much of the work.[7]
She was described by Neil Clerehan as "probably the nation's foremost female architect".[8]
The first published projects of Edmond and Corrigan—the Edinburgh Gardens Pavilion (design completed 1977) and Patford House (design completed 1975) in Fitzroy—were developed by Edmond alone.[9]
Edmond became a member of the Deakin University Council in 1999, acting as Deputy Chancellor from 2004 to 2007. She sits as chairperson of Deakin University's Campus Planning Committee.[10]
In 2014, Edmond sat on the jury of the Houses Awards—an annual program to award Australia's best residential architecture projects.[11]
Maggie Edmond was awarded an honorary Doctor of Architecture by the University of Melbourne on 21 March 2015.[13]
Architecture honours
In 2001, she was awarded a Life Fellowship by the RAIA.[14]
In 2023 she was recognised by the Victorian Chapter of the Institute of Architects with the Enduring Architecture Award becoming the named award, the Maggie Edmond Enduring Architecture Award, of which she won the inaugural award in 2003 for the 1978 Chapel of St Joseph.
Twenty years later, the Institute asked the 2023 Gold Medal Jury to consider whether there had been an oversight in acknowledging only one member of the duo whose longstanding collaboration was responsible for the practice of Edmond and Corrigan. The jury was undivided in its conclusion that the work celebrated in the 2003 Gold Medal was that of the partnership.[17]
— Shannon Battisson on behalf of the 2023 Gold Medal Jury
Personal life
Edmond is the daughter of Melbourne fashion designer Linda Suchestow.[18]
Further reading
Hamann, Conrad (1993). Cities of Hope: Australian Architecture and Design by Edmond and Corrigan 1962-92. Oxford. ISBN0-19-553467-0.
Corrigan, Peter (1996). Building 8: Edmond and Corrigan at RMIT. Schwarz Transition. ISBN1863953132.
Hamann, Conrad (2012). Cities of Hope Re-membered: Australian Architecture by Edmond and Corrigan 1962-2012. Thames & Hudson. ISBN978-050050-034-7.
Spooner, Michael (2013). A Clinic for the Exhausted: In Search of an Antipodean Vitality Edmond & Corrigan and an Itinerant Architecture. Spurbuchverlag. ISBN978-3-88778-392-1.
Peter Corrigan: cities of hope. RMIT Gallery. 2013. ISBN9780980771046.